Love's Aftermath
by McGonagall's Bola
Summary: Set after 5.16 The Sum in the Parts of the Whole. Sweets' hypothesis that Booth's 'love' for Brennan would slowly disappear again, wasn't entirely correct, was it? BB -REWRITTEN!


Brennan sighed. "Mr. Vaziri, could you please discover more about that blunt force trauma on the side of the skull, and perhaps reveal what possibly could have caused it?"

He nodded, eagerly.

"I'll be digging into his things, and search for some particulates," Hodgins announced.

"And I'll be doing a fac–" Angela started, but her best friend the scientist had already undone both of her gloves, and walked away from their remains. She seemed quite absentminded. Angela had vaguely gotten that she, and Booth had had some meeting with Sweets the day before to return, and give comments on their copies of his unpublished book .

Tempe hadn't said anything about it, though. And Booth hadn't showed up at the Jeffersonian today quite yet, for one reason or another. Usually, he would have been pushing them all to get an ID for their victim, but not this time. Something must have gone terribly bad yesterday.

So, Angela put down her scrapbook, and followed Brennan towards her office. She easily found her friend, sitting at her desk with her head in her hands. Angela wondered if maybe she did this to hide tears or… Right then, Bones slowly looked up to find Angela leaning against her doorway.

Dr. Temperance Brennan of course wasn't crying... anymore, at least. She, however, had cried herself asleep last night… mainly because of her very own foolishness. Why couldn't she be more like him; like Booth? If she actually had been, something between them could have really happened, but now…

Brennan's eyes were red and puffy, though. It wouldn't be much longer until the tears were streaming again. By no means had something, either personal or professional, succeeded in bringing her off-focus on any case until today.

"Sweetie, are you… alright?" Angela questioned, concernedly. She would very likely only say yes again, but she could at least try, right?

"No, Angela… I'm not," Brennan admitted.

"What's wrong?" Ange wondered, her worry having reached its maximum upon hearing her best friend, the scientist, truthfully say that she wasn't really fine. She carefully shut Brennan's office door behind her, and sat herself down on one of the chairs opposite her. "Sweetie, what's wrong? Please… enlighten me," she said, instinctively reaching for her friend's hand.

"Booth, and me…" Temperance whispered, lightly sniveling. "I… I ruined all."

"What? How?" Angela uttered.

Brennan sighed. "Sweets… Sweets always concedes we are madly in love w-with each other, and told us both to act upon it, and- and he suddenly called Booth the gambler, and…"

An uncontainable, melancholic sob occasionally sounded through her voice. Angela's brows knit together analytically while listening. The gambler? Of course, Brennan had once told her that Booth had had some issues regarding gambling before their working together, but why would Sweets mention that with them acting upon their feelings? She didn't really care about that right now, though. What had however happened to have made Brennan so upset?

"H-He- He… said that he wanted to give us a chance, and- and I pushed him away, and said we- we… couldn't."

"Brennan!" Angela verbalized in utter surprise, and despondency. "I would have my reply ready if a knight in shining armor like Booth asked me to give us a chance… Alright, sorry… I mean, why?"

"I'm not like him, Ange. I- I… can't love unconcernedly like him, and you… I'm not romantic at all… And serious relationships… it just doesn't lie in my nature, I think. I'm not that kind of woman; to have some children, and then settle down…"

"Brennan, didn't you… wish for a baby about a year ago? Even less than a year ago?"

She nodded, sighing again. Dr. Brennan slowly shook her head trying hopelessly to get rid of all her worries and make it feel lighter, but it didn't. "I did. I mean, I do. I really think I could provide any child a very good environment… but on the other hand, I wouldn't be able to give it love."

"Brennan, you would! It doesn't mean that, because you're a scientist – and always too rational – that you aren't capable to love. I mean, look at Hodgins! He's reasonably one of the… wittiest scientists of whole D.C., with all of this doctorates, and I never doubted about whether he actually loved me with everything he had." Usually, Brennan would have argued about being one of the wittiest scientist of whole D.C. as well. She didn't, though.

"You aren't together anymore," Brennan asserted.

Ange sighed. "No…"

"Do you… sometimes regret it?"

She nodded, sighing again. "Brennan, sweetie. I mean this in the nicest way, but you're seriously dumb for giving him the thumbs down. He's handsome… He's intelligent… and he really loves you."

"I'm more intelligent than he is, but I won't deny any of that."

"Yeah, and all of us are aware that you really love him back. You may be able to hide it better than anyone else, and may be less spontaneous if it comes to being in love than me, for example, but we all already got that you're in love with him, too. I often enough see the sparkle in your eyes when he's with you; it is so obvious. I agree with Sweets that you should both be acting upon it, and you maybe even more than Booth."

"What's being said about me here?" Booth's voice suddenly sounded in the doorway. Brennan rapidly batted her eyes in an effort to cover up the evidence of her unshed tears, which would surely have been released if he hadn't abruptly entered. He tried to keep his tone casual, but nothing of his usual cheerfulness seemed there.

Especially when both females immediately looked up at him in surprise saying 'nothing' at almost exactly the same time, he understood that he must have had a pretty bad timing. A look into Brennan's direction only confirmed that. "I uh… I'm gonna question Miss Harding again, and I uh… was wondering if you would like to come with or..."

"You could have… called, too."

"Yeah, but uh… I- I just thought… I mean, I usually…"

"I haven't gotten to finish working on the remains," Brennan answered. She wasn't really lying, but mainly she only wanted to get rid of him, cruelly said. She didn't really feel comfortable being with him alone yet. Booth and she used to be always so at ease with each other, and now, after yesterday, nothing of that seemed to be longer true.

* * *

It happened not much later the same day that Booth used his Jeffersonian ID card to enter the Jeffersonian Institute. A very fake smile again adorned his face, much like that morning. Brennan uneasily replied with one of hers, not more or less fake than his. "Mr. Vaziri's found that maybe something round with a dimension of about three inches could–"

"Three and half would be exact," Arastoo Vaziri interrupted.

Dr. Brennan looked up at him before continuing. "Right. I confirmed that something round with a dimension around three… and half… inches could have caused her injuries."

Mr. Vaziri nodded. "We found that non-penetrating trauma to the side of the skull might have very likely lead to her death.

"Right," Brennan whispered. She wasn't doing good at all… She had always learned to use her mind instead of senses, yet Love's negative effects would fairly easily come down on her highly intellectual capacities, too.

Brennan briefly looked up, finding all gazes upon her. She exhaled, subtly turning her attention to Hodgins, who opened his mouth to say something about this or that particle. Booth, however, interrupted him. "Bones, are you… alright?" He whispered, but so, that only she could hear it.

And then she suddenly fell into pieces, lower lip quivering as she tried to contain her emotions as always. She found herself unable to this time, though. "I'm not…" she uttered. "Why, if you all certainly see I'm not, would you even question if I am?"

"Bones, I'm sorry… I only…"

"I'm sorry, too," she said. Mr. Vaziri, Hodgins and Angela turning away remained unnoticed by Brennan. Angela briefly looked over her shoulder with hopeful eyes, though. "And would you like to hear why? Because I'm foolish! I'm foolish!"

That one really bewildered him. What had happened to her usual, well-collected being?

"I'm foolish, for not being able to give you something back, and for keeping you off when I love you, too!"

And then she suddenly turned around… and ran, feeling as if she had maybe said… had revealed… too much… Booth almost immediately ran after, though. He caught up with his Bones somewhere midway towards her office. "Bones…" She reveled around to look at him, and fell into his embrace. Neither of them noticed Cam having entered the Jeffersonian, and now watching them incredulously, and grinning. Both Bones, and Booth hopelessly failed to notice Cam, and Angela exchanging expressions. Finally.

Brennan hugged him tightly before letting go to look at him again insecurely, wondering how Booth would ever be able to convince the FBI to allow them to keep working together.

He tenderly cradled Bones' face in his hands, looking into her eyes before kissing her right then, and there. She didn't try push him away, or really care about them not being alone.

Angela happily released a very soft 'woohoo!', and Hodgins lightly chuckled, too.


End file.
